


Chosen Hero

by WriterSky20



Category: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Anakin Skywalker has the Hero's Spirit, Anakin gets flashes of memories, Dreams and Nightmares, Gen, Hyrulian Culture, I don't know yet everything that will happen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Jedi Culture & Tradition (Star Wars), Link is Anakin, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Reincarnation, Tatooine Slave Culture (Star Wars), The Force, and impressions, warning tags will be in notes if there needs to be
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-15 23:27:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 19,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28572258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WriterSky20/pseuds/WriterSky20
Summary: Anakin remembers. Not a lot. But the impressions are enough to make him recognize that this is not the Feeling, not tied to anybody except himself.Now he wants to know is who was he?
Relationships: Link & Zelda (Legend of Zelda), Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker (background)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 46





	1. Memories Are A Fickle Thing.

Sometimes, Anakin gets these flashes.

These – unexplainable – impressions.

A flash of a green forest on the outskirts, right over the mountains the master had ordered him to go to for one reason or none.

The random feeling of confusion, and a small amount of fear, over there being two suns where he thought there should be one.

Echoes of a language he didn’t recognize as Basic, Huttese, any of the languages he’s heard off-worlders speak, and definitely not Amatakka (Not even Dai Bendu which he learns as a Jedi). Yet he understands what is being said as though he has spoken, written, and read in that language many times before.

Sometimes, when confronted or faced with something that brought him fear and anger, his hands would twitch to the side or to his back, like he was going to pull out a weapon or weapons he didn’t have.

When he was younger, Anakin had never really thought anything of these impressions.

Thinking they were just like whatever allowed him to sense the master’s emotions or other people’s emotions, whatever let him blend in to nature more easily than even the older slaves, whatever was letting him see without seeing. Just flashes of other people’s memories or thoughts or feelings that he occasionally got, especially in crowded places. (He’s lost count of the number of times he nearly lost his mind in Coruscant because of it being too loud, too bright, and there being no escape or him not reaching the silent sanctuary of the Temple in time before he passed out, especially in the earlier years, all thanks to his training as a slave to lessen the possibility of punishment.)

It was easy to think it was just whatever that thing was (he was glad when Qui-Gon had given him a name for it; it had driven him mad trying to figure out how to explain the feeling when nobody else, not even his fellow slaves, knew what it was or understood. His mother had seemed to, if on a smaller amount.)

It wasn’t until he was about 7 years old, when he and Kister Banai had gotten stuck in a sandstorm a few hours away from Mos Espa (their masters had expanded the range of their transmitters for them to be able to accomplish the latest goose chase in the mountains nearby. If he remembers correctly, he’s pretty sure he had been sent to get rare metals only found in the mountains for Watto’s latest commissioned project while Kitser had been found to get a flower that could supposedly only be found in the mountains as well). He was by shire luck they had ended up in the same mountain.

Anakin was pretty sure the feeling that had taken over him, which had allowed him to start a fire and cook them some food (the sandstorm had been going on for hours by then – they weren’t expected back until tomorrow night time so it was fine for now) using nothing but the plants growing in that cave and the meat of a small creature he had killed and skinned, wasn’t from the feeling that let him know what Watto is feeling, but from the _impressions_ , the feelings and impressions and memories that made him think a forest and a green land was supposed to be to the east of the mountains, that the suns were only supposed to be one sun, that there should be animals and creatures and monsters that don’t exist within and around these deserts and the mountains and the green rich land that doesn’t exist.

Anakin thought he should have been afraid – as a slave, the thought of these impressions and what they were making him feel and do should have terrified him. Instead, they made him feel braver, more certain of himself or uncertainty of himself in times of vulnerability when he allowed the impressions to surround him – they made himself feel more whole, like a puzzle piece finally setting into place which he would not have been able to set into place without these impressions.

Kister had been surprised but appreciative of the food his cooking had given them; it also let them escape their masters’ wrath because they both had gotten what they were ordered to get and had come back in the time frame they were supposed to and with little to no injuries. But, even if they hadn’t, the two still grin at each other in secret, knowing full well them surviving the storm together meant they were brothers and they both were glad of it.

That was the first time he slowly began to realize, no. These impressions weren’t like the Feeling At. All. It was something different.

Sometimes, the impressions were dreams.

Sometimes, Anakin dreams of major storms with rain and lighting and thunder, powerful enough to shake the earth. Sometimes, he dreams of creatures he knew to be dragons, dragons more powerful than the krayts – with elemental abilities beyond his imagination.

Sometimes, Anakin dreams of a great, never-ending sea. Of a sorrowful legend told to the children on an island to explain why they are living there instead of the great land that supposedly laid below their feet.

Sometimes, he dreams of a dangerous forest, of endless adventures and wanderings through those forests and fighting monsters he didn’t recognize yet somehow knew the names of. Of a sleeping princess.

Sometimes, Anakin dreams of being a human-like being then a wolf then the human-like being then the wolf.

Sometimes, Anakin has the impressions and dreams of flying through the sky on a giant bird. Of air pressure differences that made his lungs burn when he wakens to the desert heat and air from a clear, endless sky in a land high up. The only thing that’s come close to replicating that same feeling was being at the top of the mountains, but the mountains were still hot, still burning.

Sometimes, Anakin dreams of being in darkness, in chains, with there being only one light source that only seemed to make him want to weep. Anakin wakes up from those dreams with enough pain in his heart that he more often than not ended up scratching and clawing and silently screaming at the pain in his chest, whether he’s actually injured or not.

Sometimes, he dreams of endless adventures that eventually, blended into one seemingly-never-ending one. One that made him unsure of what was dream and what was reality by the end of those dreams. He got slapped over the head, pushed around, on several occasions beaten up, and sent on more ridiculous quests by Watto during those weeks in which he had that version of the dreams.

Sometimes, Anakin dreams of being a child in an adult’s body, being an adult in a child’s body, going back and forth and back and forth again and again to change the outcome of his timeline. Sometimes, he gets disoriented about being a child _again_ without using any time travel during those weeks with that particular dream. He learned the existence of fairies and what they can do because of that dream, though they don’t exist in his world, which definitely isn’t the world his many different dream selves hale from.

Sometimes, he dreams of being split, four then one then four then one over and over and over again, then tiny then big, stretched this way and that way, spread thin with the different versions of a him that make up one person yet not. And it aches not hearing four people in his head, or he feels woozy and disjointed in the early morning being not so tiny his mother can’t see him, yet logically, Anakin knows he hasn’t split into four then back again nor turned so small as to be considered a scrying desert beetle.

Sometimes, he dreams of a war. Spanning so much that it drags in others from other eras. In his younger days, it just reminded him of a much, much bigger and more damning to both sides’ version of slaves getting punished, then fighting back, only to get more punished until they break. A dark, dark war that never seems to end even after the others return to their own world. Anakin in his older years, when the Clone Wars starts up, only feels resignation at how easy it is for him to slip into that soldier version of himself. That soldier side which, he learns in the dreams with the storms, seems to spam two different eras and lifetimes.

Anakin felt the most connected, the most tied to the dreams with the storms, felt the most familiarity with the wild that spanned endlessly even into the two towns his dream self’s people had managed to keep safe and outside of the – what the people in his dream self’s world called – Calamity and its monsters’ reach… For the most part. Luckily, that dream world also had a desert, even with the different plantations and wild life and monsters, it was a comfort for the Anakin side of him that’s still conscious during the dreams.

Anakin never told anybody about these dreams. Only his mother knew about the dreams. He had told Kister and the Grandmother about the impressions.

The Grandmother had thought it was just another version of the Feeling, focused more towards memories and thoughts rather than emotions. And had told him the same advice she gave him when he had first brought the Feeling to her: Maneuver it like it is still the same podracer but with upgrades that work almost similar to the original design, don’t let it bring you too high up but don’t let it bring you crashing down.

The advice works with these impressions like it does with the Feeling, relatively. But Anakin – he can’t explain it, but these impressions didn’t feel like somebody else’s thoughts or memories invading his mind and body as a powerful imprint (it is only until he meets and interacts with more Jedi that he gets that feeling, and only when they are touching him and feeling strong enough emotions to get past their barriers). It felt like they were his own, but not him. He – didn’t know how to explain it to people who weren’t him, but that’s what it was.

It wasn’t until some off-worlders who just so happened to be discussing their religious differences and beliefs between their two people who hale from the same world, arrive at Watto’s small mechanic store looking to get their droid repaired, that he learns the correct terminology and explanation for the impressions.

“We can repair it ourselves,” the off-worlder who had taken over talking to Watto had assured, “But there are parts they need our designation won’t have. We figured this world, filled with mechanical parts, would have the part we need. We have the correct money too, made the exchange before we came in.” Watto, of course, was upset at not being able to drag extra money out of his customers to pay for repairs, but he takes the off-worlder to the back where they might find the parts they need.

The other off-worlder stays behind and just simply observes, looking around the shop.

Anakin, while working on cleaning a part for a ruined droid commissioned to be fixed, remembers a word the off-worlder before him at said. He mutters to himself in confusion, “Reborn?” The word had a familiarity to it, similar to how some other words have familiarity in them in the same way as the impressions.

“Excuse me?”

The 8-year-old slave twitches in a suppressed flinch and he turns to see the off-worlder focusing on him. Anakin’s mouth and throat closes up in that familiar way, just like it had in his dreams with storms, in his dreams with wolves and the dark, in his dreams with chains and betrayal, and in his dreams with the constantly shifting time. His hands move, twitch really, in the way they usually do when this happened to his dream selves – to be his voice in the way his throat and mouth’s voice couldn’t like it could for others. But, even through the startled realization that an off-worlder could see him when he was focused on disappearing into the background, he manages to remind himself that he is Anakin Skywalker, not the people from the dreams, he cannot be silent if his voice isn’t being blocked.

Then he realizes that his silence was too long and flinches again, waiting for a blow in response to taking too long to answer that doesn’t come. He looks at the off-worlder and realizes that they had waited. Is still patiently waiting for him to sort himself out and answer.

And somehow, he hasn’t managed to drop the part or the cloth in his hands.

Some part of him is glad that this person was taking the time to wait. But he focused back on the conversation and spoke, throat and voice unclogging with those impressions fading again.

“S – sorry, I had heard your conversation with your buddy and heard you say a word I don’t know the meaning of, so I just repeated it to see if I heard it before,” Anakin explains, then he focuses back on cleaning the part, thinking the off-worlder would move on now that he had answered their ‘excuse me?’.

“Which part?” The off-worlder, surprisingly, kept it going. Apparently wanting to continue their conversation with the little slave. _They probably haven’t realized I’m a slave yet and am not just a worker,_ Anakin thinks and, despite the potential danger, decides to take a chance with this stranger to have a normal conversation that hopefully won’t eventually lead to the possibly wealthy traveling off-worlder realizing he’s a slave and retracting their supposed kindness.

“Eh?”

“We were talking about the differences in our religions despite both of us coming from the same world,” the traveler explains, “I’m a religious researcher and teacher back home when I’m not traveling. So, I know a ton about my religion and am always happy to explain or get into a discussion with someone about religion. Which part caught your attention? Even with the more complicated parts of it, I’m sure I can explain it outside of complicated religious and historical context.”

Despite deciding to go through with the conversation, Anakin still hesitates for a moment. He examines the part then decides that it’s clean enough to go back inside. While he’s working on reattaching and putting the other cleaned parts back together and into the small droid, he says, “The… ‘reborn’ part. I… don’t know what that means. But it feels…” He rephrases, “What does ‘reborn’ mean?”

The traveler smiles and takes a seat onto one of the cushions on the floor near the shelves, facing Anakin while giving him space to still work or get out of the conversation or move about if Watto calls for him. “That’s my favorite part about my religion and beliefs. For my religion, ‘Reborn’ is basically, in its simplicities of terms, a second chance. To become something new, something else, after death. The term most commonly used when not focusing on individual people is reincarnation – a description used to explain the process in its whole as one single continuous, but breakable, cycle. Are you following me so far?” Anakin pauses in his motions of rebuilding, processing the information given so far, then nods.

“Reincarnation is the cycle of life then death then re-life then re-death. To be reborn is a second chance to live life rather than simply move on to the afterlife. But instead of simply repeating your old life, you are given a new one. Your soul is wiped clean and placed in another forming body and you live as another person, because you are another person. In my religion, the reason for your reincarnation can vary: some reincarnate because they didn’t accomplish what they needed to in life and this is affecting the way the world is, some reincarnate because the regrets their old life gave them was enough to make moving on an impossibility without doing something but not to the point of being stuck on the planet,” _click._ The droid part slides onto the pole and clicks into place next to the turning clock part. “Some are reborn simply because they died too young. Others because they chose to try again. And others because their people are suffering despite their old life’s best efforts so they decided to try again as someone else.” Anakin screws in the plating holding the ends of the pole in their place then connects the new wires he had managed to salvage and re-wire into this droid to their new slots.

The off-world traveler has taken out a strange metallic twisting ball and started to mess with. Round and round he turned it, this way and that. “This cycle, once entered, continues five times. Your fifth life is your last. Every horrible act you committed during those six lives – from your original to your last – gets added up as scars upon your soul: lying creates either a permanent bruise or a scabbed/scarred cut depending on the type of lie and how deep it goes, the level of damage leading to scars adds up all the way to murder which shows up as an electric burn starting from your victim’s killing injury to the rest of your body. Thoughts aren’t counted until you start to go through with it. Every good act you commit during those six lives gets added up as a sort-of healing upon your soul: for example, apologizing for lying or deciding to tell the truth heals the bruising and cuts brought on by lying; deciding to honestly forgive yourself and or others who had hurt you heals the worst of whatever damage that pain and or action brought upon your soul in a way that trying to do and be better can’t. Once you die for the last time, these points get added up until it is decided where you will go. Circumstances and context can be argued in favor if you are able to point those circumstances and context out and those circumstances don’t just damn you further. Soul Therapy is required before you are allowed to enter Judgement, which is a different topic and conversation entirely. Are you still following me? This gets pretty complicated once you add in all the different factors and circumstances and the many, many interpretations the Heavenly Speakers have brought us over the eons of the Sacred Texts and our Tradition.”

Anakin pauses again, having been listening even as he was working (years as a slave taught him how to listen while still working, and not accidently fall into the trance electronics and mechanics and inventions usually causes him to fall into). He processes the information dump brought upon his head.

He could see why the traveler had warned him about much of the stuff being complicated and confusing when not given religious and historical context. It’s obviously complicated even with that knowledge! Yet, he still understands what the traveler is saying, even if the more religiously based stuff is more confusing for him outside of context.

But there was one question Anakin had about this concept of reincarnation. He sets down his tools and the droid on the counter and turns to focus completely on the religious teacher.

“Can…” He pauses. Then takes in a breath and rephrases his question, “When you’re reborn, can you remember your past lives?”

The teacher blinks slowly, but still keeps their smile. In fact, it seems to widen at Anakin’s question. Delighted at the young kid’s questions. 

“Actually, it’s not known for certain. Most reincarnations appear to be wiped completely clean of their past life’s memories. But there are a few recorded historical people back home, in our history, that seem to remember bits and pieces of their previous lives: recognizing landscapes they’d never been to in their current life, talking in our native tongue mindlessly using slang that hasn’t existed in hundreds of years but not remembering where they learned it, walking down roads and pathways long neglected, remembering creatures or plants or even other sentient races long deceased or endangered to the point of not being seen in decades or centuries. Remembering battles and wars and disasters we no longer have record of but the planet still shows scars or signs of. This is just a few recorded things we have that show proof of maybe, just maybe some reborn people have been allowed to remember their past lives.” The teacher shrugs. “Besides, who knows how many people remember bits and pieces of or their entire past lives who simply decided against talking about or writing about their memories or impressions? The simple answer is, we don’t know. Maybe it is possible or maybe some people just simply fell through the cracks of the cycle during the cleansing process and it wasn’t noticed that those people still have their memories with them before they got sent off. There’s no explanation, complicated or not, I can give you that would accurately explain the situation. I can tell you this much though: those bits and pieces of memories getting remembered might just explain why exactly the limit on how many times you can go through the cycle is five.” The _Anybody would go insane remembering thousands of different things or impressions or lifetimes from different eras and not having any of those things be there anymore or just a shell of their former selves_ was left unsaid.

(That is all that’s said on the topic without it getting to need more religious and historical context plus knowledge on the Sacred Texts the off-worlder speaks off. Good thing because that was around the other off-worlder returned, less waipupis and more droid parts in his bag, then they left after thanking Watto and Anakin. Anakin also quickly whispered a thank you to the kind traveler who had indulged in his curiosity.)

Anakin understands exactly why as well. The memories are sparse, more impressions than anything else outside of the dreams (which are clearer but still impressions), but they are there. Yet, it’s enough to make Anakin feel like he’s going crazy or feel completely numb yet energized yet stretched everywhere yet confined, on particularly bad days.

Now though… Now, he had a word for those impressions and why he gets them.

_Reincarnation. Rebirth. Reborn into someone else. A second chance._

Somehow, he knows that this isn’t his first reincarnation. It’s just his first reincarnation as someone who doesn’t have the same name as the previous ones. He figured that much from the dreams – that his dream selves, as different as they were, had the same name for some reason.

Reincarnation. The term left both a bitter, ashy taste in his mouth, but a warmth and an easy acceptance in his chest. His eyes burned from both the sandstorm raging outside he just barely escaped from on his way home from Watto’s, and from the impressions he finally has an explanation for.

Anakin couldn’t explain it, even less than he can explain the impressions which he knows aren’t the Feeling. But the word slots into place in the complicated puzzle, which contains all the answers if he could only solve it. That is, the answers to impressions, not the Feeling. That’s a completely different puzzle he has a feeling will be more easily solved if he only found the right people to ask his questions to.

Okay. He has one word to explain his circumstances of the impressions. More questions about why he remembers bits and pieces from each life, yet his past lives didn’t remember each other – unless, the reincarnation for them was something completely different. If so, why him? Does it have something to do with the name they had but he doesn’t? Or does it have more to do with the land they hale from but he doesn’t?

Well. More questions came from that word, it seems.

But still,

What is it about them, that marks them down as ___? What is ___? What is the word that is them?

Something. Something that causes the land and its people to bring them back again and again in their strange version of reincarnation where they have the same soul yet don’t have the same soul.

And if Anakin has that Something… why have all their souls combined into one instead of letting him be his own person with that Something, like they got to be? Is it because he is not of that land and people? And his reincarnation, him as their successor, needed their help in a way that means not getting a spirit guide but all of them in fractured parts of a single whole? What is the problem that lead them away from their land, and for him to be of them yet not in their home?

What is that Something?

And

Why is Anakin the reincarnation who is not of the land yet has the people who loved it?

Why is Anakin not of the same name as them? Is it because of the culture difference? His name before meant something to the people of that land but means nothing to the Amatakka his new people (nor the Jedi who would become his new people later on). Is that why it is different? The name means something to his people, whoever they may be, so that is the name he bears?

Is the person in chains the reason why or did the name hold significance before him? In Amatakka, his name is culturally significant because the person in chains broke free and freed the people with them many, many generations ago – all the way to the time of legends! Was it the same for the person in chains in those dreams reflecting his memories? He broke free. But he had been betrayed and that is why he was in chains, not enslaved. Anakin reminds himself. Betrayed and locked up, not enslaved.

…

But still a person in chains.

Anakin shakes his head and sighs in quiet frustration. He had work earlier than usual tomorrow. Yet, his mind was running in circles and he couldn’t sleep.

But, after having one puzzle piece solved and slotted into place, Anakin wanted answers for the other pieces. He didn’t even care if it was answers for the Feeling.

Would be nice if he knew where to start.

…Would be nice if he could start…


	2. The Trails of the Phantom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made the Jedi competent in recognizing the Senate is using them, far, far ahead of schedule. Anakin wouldn't be able to travel and figure out who he was if the Senate wasn't taken care of first. Also, trauma wouldn't be solved, avoided, or confronted so willingly if the Senate aka the controllers aka the owners weren't out of the picture. Also, forced Obi-wan and Anakin to go to therapy via Council.

When the woman, the Jedi, and their comrades come, Anakin is deeply reminded of the heroic stories where the hero’s guides and companions come along for the first time to drag them off on an adventure.

The part of Anakin that the impressions make real simply groans and whispers to Anakin against engaging with them, that they could very well drag him into something that he is majorly underprepared for. _We were just kids_ , a flash of an impression melancholily mutters.

 _I’m just a kid!_ An impression of himself – no, the one who dreams, screams as monster after monster comes running towards him.

Anakin, reluctantly, turns away from them and doesn’t engage in conversation once the older man is taken by Watto to the back.

 _He doesn’t have the right money. Watto is going to be frustrated. No customers in days but he’s not going to be willing to give up that policy of No Republican credits, especially when it just means having to trade those credits for money that is worth something here._ Anakin distantly thinks, reading into the Feeling’s drifting and shifting sand. _This is supposed to happen._ The Feeling pushes at him.

But he is just as stubborn as it is and refuses the opportunity to engage.

Even when the Gungan activates a droid, he simply hopes down, walks over, and taps the nose, then moves it back to its original position.

The woman, as he returns to his spot on the counter, pulls the Gungan over to where she is near the entrance and quietly scolds him. To which the Gungan protests back on not meaning to and simply being curious.

The Artoo unit whistles cheekily and Anakin is not able to hold back his snort of laughter at the droid’s comment. The woman – _a teen, hurting, losing something, lost something._ The Feeling whispers. _Just a kid_ , the impressions mutter again, softer, sadder. – looks at him, but Anakin resolutely doesn’t acknowledge her or her companions.

Just focuses back onto his task of watching the store front, ignoring the insisting Feeling.

 _You know for well I can’t interact. I can’t engage with them; I could get killed or worse._ Anakin retorts to the Feeling. Then tries to blend into the background like he had been taught, to get the woman – _teenager_ ’s eyes to slide right past him.

The Gungan’s eyes slide past him, so does the droid’s, but the teen girl, having been looking at him, steps forward, tilting her head curiously.

 _Damn it, why?_ He silently begs the teen to not engage in conversation with him, resolutely turning to face back on the entrance and the store around them.

“Hello,” the teen speaks up. Anakin internally sighs, then dismisses the background static illusion all slaves can do. He decides the best way to do this was to put on his customer service mask. He smiles blankly and asks, “Hello, how may I help you?” The woman blinks, taken aback, then answers,

“Oh, uh. I didn’t mean to disturb you if you were busy, I just wanted to say hello.”

“Are you here with the older gentleman Ma – Watto just took out back or with the Gungan and the droid but a separate party? If a separate party, what do you need?”

The teen girl shakes her head, “No, I’m – we’re with the older gentleman.”

“Okay,” he nods then returns back to watch the shop. The woman steps back and returns to her original spot, unsure now. Anakin feels a ping of guilt, but shoves it down. He wasn’t going to get involved in anything.

He could already imagine the punishment if he tried. The Feeling rings and twirls around him, pushing him. He responses with another shrug and a subtly shake of the head.

The older gentleman walks away from the back with Watto, annoyed. They found what they needed but they didn’t have the correct amount of money. He tells the girl, Gungan, and the Artoo unit they were leaving and walks away. She opens her mouth to ask a question but is forced to follow him out along with the water native and the droid, if she wanted to be heard and to stick with her companions.

Watto scoffs and rolls his eyes, “Off-worlders.”

“They seemed nice,” Anakin quietly says. Watto huffs, “Couldn’t pay a kriffing thing!”

 _They’re off-worlders,_ Anakin thinks, _Of course they wouldn’t know or have the correct currency. Especially if they hadn’t even planned on coming here._

Watto dismisses him early. It is getting close to festival season; it’s frowned upon and enforced that nobody is allowed to work past the second sun’s highest peak in the sky during this time of preparation, not even the slaves (so nobody is allowed to shop after that time either). Anakin still cheers silently about being allowed to go home early though.

The Gungan has gotten into trouble with Sebulba. Anakin sighs, then walks over and gets Sebulba to back off. To which he reluctantly does, all the while sneering at Anakin and the Gungan. The Gungan gets scolded again, this time by the older gentleman for causing trouble while the girl thanks Anakin.

Anakin stays quiet and simply nods to her thanks. Anakin is about to walk away, heading towards the Slave Quarters, when his head snaps up, past the buildings and the streets to the desert. He sucks in a breath. “Sandstorm,” He breathes out, then turns towards the strangers. He tucks on the older gentleman’s cover, getting his attention, and tells him, voice quiet but urgent, “There’s a sandstorm coming, you have to get to shelter. Sandstorm’s coming quick so you’ll have to run!” The man looks towards the desert then back to Anakin, he nods his head.

“We’re leaving, back to the ship!” He informs the others, then to Anakin, “Thank you for the heads up. How long before the storm comes?” Anakin listens closely to the wind and the Feeling.

“30 minutes. Where’s your ship?”

“By the outskirts,” the girl answers. Anakin cusses in the three languages he knows, then, hoping that these strangers won’t drag him off into an adventure that will get him killed or worse, tells them, “Too far! Follow me.”

He turns and starts running, leading the way to the Slave Quarters. They, listening to his judgement and the judgement of the other locals who are running around them trying to get home before the storm hits, follow him to his home.

He manages to get them inside just as it hits Mos Espa. They all breath out a sigh of relief and shake themselves, getting as much of the gathered sand from running off as they can.

Anakin calls out to his mom, saying he brought home some off-worlders who would not have been able to make it back to their ship in time before the storm hits. His mom, Shmi Skywalker, sighs in fond exasperation at Anakin but greets the strangers, telling them they can come closer indoors.

This is where Anakin learns their names.

“Thank you, I’m Qui-Gon Jinn.”

“I’m Padmé Amidala. Nice to meet you and thank you for your hospitality despite the unexpectedness of our arrival.”

“Mesa Jar-Jar Binks,” The Gungan introduces.

“The droid is th- is mine,” Padmé, the teen girl, corrects herself, “His name is R2-D2.” R2-D2 whistles in greeting.

Shmi nods in greeting to them, “I’m Shmi Skywalker. This little helper of mine here is my son, Anakin Skywalker.” Anakin smiles, tiredly, Jinn internally notes, at them. “You are welcomed here for as long as the storm lasts.”

Later, after the dinner conversation where Anakin offers to help them race the podrace competition for them to get the engine after Shmi informs them that if they don’t have the money then gambling is the only way, Anakin sits on the balcony railing, staring up at the stars. Mister Qui-Gon Jinn enters and leans against the railing next to him.

“That was a kind offer you gave us despite us doing nothing to warrant it, I thank you for that,” he states. Anakin says nothing for a moment then softly, he begins to tell the man he has realized is a Jedi, “For as long as I could remember, the stars have always been there. No matter the universe or the time. If there was a space, there were stars. Someone once told me the stars are our guides – when we lose our way, look to the stars, they will show you the course home if you listen.” He remains staring at the stars, as Qui-Gon looks up at them too.

“They sound like a wise person,” he comments.

“I know it’s presumptuous of me as a slave to ask this of you, especially when there isn’t a guarantee,” he takes in a deep breath, “If I win this race,” he turns to face Jinn, serious, “Will you free my mother with whatever remaining money remains from the win? Will you use the money to pay for your engine and my mother? I know the amount given if you win the race, on top of the wins from the gambling. 12 million waipupis altogether. Enough to pay you the engine you need and my mother.” Jinn stares at this kid, this self-sacrificing, kind kid, completely and utterly floored. What ever question he had been expecting, it was not that.

“Skywal –”

Anakin pushes, “ _Will you_?” And Qui-Gon sees that this is a test. A test towards him or towards the Jedi as a whole, he didn’t know. But it was a test and Qui-Gon’s answer could very well make or shake the kid’s faith in possibly not just him but the Jedi altogether. Or it could be a test towards off-worlders, given to see who was trust worthy or not.

Qui-Gon looks directly at the slave and answers, “Yes. If the money gained is indeed enough to pay for not only the engine, but enough to also pay your mother’s freedom, I will do so.” Somehow, even though he hadn’t tried to word it as such, he could feel the weight of his promise fall onto his shoulders. The kid would hold him up to it. But Qui-Gon also promised to himself that he would free the kid too. The mother and son were a package deal, he wasn’t going to separate them if he couldn’t. He decided he would use the leftover money to pay for the mother and the bet with Watto to free Anakin, plans flying through his head.

Anakin relaxes, a burden lifting off his shoulders, and he returns to watching the sky. Still, Jinn could easily hear his quiet ‘thank you’ radiating through the Force.

The day before the race, Qui-Gon makes his bet with Watto. He tells him, “Let’s make a bet. I will let Anakin Skywalker use my podracer for the race. I bet Anakin will win against whomever you bet for. I will use the money earned from the race to pay for the engine and pay for Shmi Skywalker’s freedom –” Watto shrieks, outraged. But Qui-Gon continues, “I’m using the money for them so that isn’t the bet. No, my bet is this – If Anakin wins the race thus I win the bet, Anakin Skywalker will become free.” Watto shrieks again and tries to interrupt but Qui-Gon tells him what he will get if he wins, “If you win, you get my Nubian ship and my podracer for whatever amount of money they will get you. Remember, the only thing I’m winning here with this bet is a freed slave and money, money which I will use but money. While if you win, you will get two ships you can sell for a high price and become rich with. You’ll have to fix the engine of course but still, it’s a nice ship.” He shows the slave owner a hologram of the Nubian ship and he quiets down for a moment, grumbling.

“So, you’re not including the engine and Shmi in the bet?”

“No, they are what I will get using the earned money. I will buy the engine from you and pay for Shmi’s freedom from you, so you will end up with that money either way. It’s 12 million wupaipis, more than enough,” Jinn calmly explains.

Watto smiles, greed filling his eyes as he realizes that yes, he will get the money in the end because Qui-Gon will be spending it to get the engine and Shmi. The only thing he will be giving up without payment money is Anakin, but Anakin will be earning his freedom through the race anyways so it doesn’t matter. And if he wins, he gets two beautiful ships that he can sell for money on top of the gambling money he will earn from the win.

Watto agrees to the deal, thinking it was a win-win for him either way though he will be losing two slaves if Qui-Gon wins. Bah, by that point, he could just pay for more. Besides, no worry anyways. Ani wasn’t going to win. Watto bets on Sebulba.

Anakin Skywalker wins the race. The first human ever to win the Bonta Eve Race.

He watches in absolute shock with his mother, two of the Nubian ship workers getting the engine onto a cart, as Watto signs Anakin’s and Shmi’s freedom with a grumble and disconnects their chips, accepting the payment for Shmi’s freedom. Mom too seems to be disconnected from reality in the shock of getting free.

It wasn’t until Obi-wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon’s apprentice who also came to help them out, gave them their detonator button that their new reality sank in. Watto has returned to the city.

Anakin sank to his knees, overwhelmed, and soon Mom joins him as Padmé comes up and quietly hands them the backpacks she and her fellow handmaidens helped pack. They both break down crying in joy, relief, and happiness.

“Free,” Shmi cries, “Free. Ani, Ani, we’re Free!” They hold each other, screaming in joy as the workers push the cart up the ramp. The others give them space for a moment, letting them have this moment.

Jinn snaps his head up towards the east, sensing a dark presence. Obi-wan looks up too, sensing it as well.

“Mas –” he was about to call out a warning then remembers the two former slaves near him and decides to use the other term for his master, “Teacher!”

“I sense it too, Padawan. Everybody, get to the ship, now!” He yells out to the people still outside. Everybody, deciding to be smart, runs to the ship and up the ramp. Padmé and Obi-wan pulling up the two ex-slaves and getting them to run to the ship. Anakin and Shmi throw their backpacks over their shoulders as they run up the ramp. Obi-wan provides backup defense while Qui-Gon provides frontline defense, making sure everybody is on board.

They both run up the ramp as the dark presence gets closer.

Obi-wan runs to the pilot seat and commands them to go, saying there’s trouble.

Luckily for all of them, the engine had been installed and checked on before the presence was sensed. So, the ramp was closed, the ship lifted up, and began its ascent into the stratosphere.

The dark sider arrived at their previous spot just as they reached outer space. They went into hyperspace soon after. The dark sider’s scream of rage could be heard for miles.

Anakin and Shmi held each other in some kind of hanging out space, they laugh at few times and they pinch each other a few times to make sure this isn’t a shared dream of some sort.

Padmé enters the room in her handmaiden outfit and smiles at them for a moment. Anakin and Shmi notice her and smile back.

“Thank you,” Mom tells the young handmaiden.

Padmé blinks, “For what? It was Mister Jinn who made the gamble and paid for your freedom.”

“But you encouraged me to believe it would work, that Ani and I both would be free when I thought it would only be Ani or, as Ani had told me he had requested I be set free using the remaining race money, I would be the only one free. You helped me believe we both would be free and it became so. So, thank you for believing when I could not,” she responses.

“If you hadn’t’ve shown up with your ship, we never would have been able to be free even with the money because with me being his slave, the money would have gone to Watto,” Anakin informs her. “So, thank you. You didn’t have to free us and neither did Mister Jinn, could have just left us there after we helped you.”

Padmé frowns, furious, “Absolutely not, I would not have just left you two there. I would have found some way to come back or free you while I was there.”

Shmi smiles sadly, “Yes, you would have. You have too many things on your plate to have helped slaves like us. And the Republic doesn’t extend or do anything out here, not in the Outer Rim. That is why we are grateful for you taking the time to return our help by helping us both become free.”

Anakin reaches over with his right hand and uncurls his palm, revealing a japor snippet in his hand. “Here, I made this for you. As thanks for giving us an opportunity to become free.”

Padmé reaches out and grabs it, taking it from him and looking it over. Her thumb rubs over the engravings on its surface as she asks, “Thank you. What is it made out of? It’s beautiful.”

“It’s a japor snippet. The one Ani made you invokes protection and safety, made specifically for those we consider our friends,” Shmi answers for him as he curls back into her warmth and the warmth of the blanket provided to them by a ship worker. Padmé looks up at them and smiles, “Thank you.” She lifts up the string holding the snippet and ties it around her neck, letting the snippet rest against her chest.

Eventually, she has to go, to attend to the Queen, which is fine by Anakin and Shmi, both having fallen asleep somewhere between the halfway point of the hyperjump and the calls for lunch.

The world of Coruscant is a strange one for the two desert people. They’ve never seen a city so big it covers the entire planet. But both Shmi and Anakin couldn’t help but mourn the lost of the plants that must have once covered the whole planet – leaving in a desert certainly gave one an appreciation to the plants that continue to stubbornly grow and plants in general. It was a shame, but they could still be amazed by Coruscant.

When it came time to figure out where exactly the ex-slaves would go, right before the Queen was supposed to go to the Senate, Anakin brings up their chips. “We need to get them removed, otherwise we are not truly free. Not in our eyes and definitely not in the eyes of slavers,” Anakin states plainly. The Core Worlders all seem disturbed, either by the sound of a child so casually talking about something that can kill them or about the reminder of the chips, Shmi didn’t know. But both Ani and her knew they would have forgotten about the chips if they were not reminded.

When asked if it could wait, Shmi and Ani are both adamant. “If we wait, what happens between now and until it will be taken care of? We remember the chips, but you did not. How long until the chips are removed? What if one of us gets kidnapped during that waiting period? The slavers will not wait, they’d just activate them again,” Shmi tells them.

Anakin steps forward, desperate to get these Core Worlders to understand, “We have to get them removed, we can be taken and sold again, if the chips are still there, we cannot escape because the slavers can activate them again. If the chips are not there, we can escape, it will cost more for the slavers to reimplant them than to reuse one that’s already in there. But if there’s not anything there, that gives us more time. I know you have something urgent to do, but this is something we cannot wait for. Never again.”

Shmi finishes for Anakin, “If you do not help us take care of them, we will take care of them ourselves. We just need access to scanners and the medical tools and we can handle everything.” The _we’ve done it tons of times before_ is left unsaid.

Before anything more can be said, Mister Kenobi steps forward. “We will take them. We have the means, the equipment, and” he focuses on Anakin, nodding to him, “We have the right skillset and capability to take out a chip and heal a Force-sensitive, unlike a normal medical facility.” He focuses on Shmi, “We can take you the Temple. Ma – Teacher Jinn and I need to report anyways. While we’re there, we’ll help you get rid of your chips. From there, you’ll be given time to heal and then we can return you to the Queen’s apartment in the Senate Apartments. If that is alright?” He turns to look questioningly at Queen Amidala who thinks about his proposal then nods.

“Yes, that should work. If everything works out at the Senate, I should be back by then, or maybe earlier. If not, I’ll inform security to let you, Shmi and Anakin, in.”

With that arrangement, they head out. The Queen and her entourage head to the Senate, and the Jedi with Shmi and Anakin head to the Jedi Temple.

Gigantic. That is what the Temple is. Gigantic. For a moment, as Anakin steps on the front steps of the Temple to stare, an overlapping image of another Temple, a different but just as magnificent temple appears. Two versions of the temple overlapped each other – one magnificent, shining-in-its-almost-prime and the other one in absolute ruin, almost consumed by a mountain. Forgotten. The impression(s) almost overwhelms him. “The Forgotten Temple,” the part of him that is the Wild lurches forward enough to get him to breathe that name out. Then the part of him that remembers flying in the Skies bursts forward to correct him, getting him to mutter, “The Sacred Temple.” Anakin blinks rapidly, overwhelmed by the impressions and the versions of him that remember completely different environments and lives, stumbling and almost choking on his own spit. The impression that changed time surges forward, causing Anakin to get a splitting headache and causing him to shake and grab his head, to grab the two other impressions and pull them back to sleep.

He blinks rapidly and looks up at the steps to see Mister Obi-wan in front with his arms out towards him, looking worried. His mother is behind Mister Obi-wan, used to these moments but still looking at him worriedly.

“Are you okay?” Obi-wan asked. Anakin nods his head, “Yeah, yeah. I am now. Sorry, just got a sudden headache. But it’s gone now.” Mister Kenobi frowned, not seeming to believe his lie – more a half-truth though – but letting it be. He turns and gestures for Anakin and Shmi to follow him.

“Come on. Ma – Teacher Jinn has given me permission to show you the way to the Halls of Healing while he gave the Council the report. It’s not that far from here but still a ways walk.”

They follow after him.

Shmi nudges her son and, muttering, asks in Amatakka, “ _Are you truly alright?_ ”

Anakin sighs and answers back, “ _Sorry, mom. Impressions had suddenly taken over the Temple while I was looking at it and my mind was overwhelmed. I’m okay now, really. It’s gone._ ” She frowns, having never really liked these impressions he gets and always thinking they were tied to the Feeling, but lets him be for now. They are in a new world and a new life is ahead of them – now was not the time to bring up something like that, especially in this place.

Secrets save your life, after all.

“Dark presence?” Ki-Adi interrupts, cutting Jinn off.

“Yes, there was a dark presence that Obi-wan and I both felt on Tatooine just as we were starting to leave,” Jinn nods, hiding his annoyance at once again being interrupted. At this point, he just wanted to finish the report _and_ _then_ deal with the questions. This was the third time in this hour he had been interrupted.

“The dark presence was pretty far by the time we sensed it. But it was so full of hatred and rage, it felt as if it was right beside us. Needless to say, we chose not to stick around long enough for us to figure out what it was. The Queen’s and her allies’ safety was our top priority over getting information about whatever that presence was. I think it’s good we made that choice,” he turns his focus to Grand Master Yoda, completely serious, but a haunted spark lights his eyes, “I can still hear its scream of outrage and hatred over not getting what it wanted, even now, miles away from it, Master Yoda. It was not just a dark side user, Grand Master. It was something far, far worse.”

Master Yoda’s ears lower and he closes his eyes. Master Windu is frowning, seeming troubled. The Council seems to mutter among themselves, though no words leave their lips, also troubled.

“You’re suggesting that the Sith have returned,” Mace states what Jinn hadn’t let leave his lips. Jinn slowly turns his eyes to Master Windu, grim and haunted, “I do not suggest, Master Windu. I am stating a fact. I never truly believed them to have been gone, just simply hidden.”

The Council begins to protest but Qui-Gon carries on,   
“How much of our Jedi history, of the Republic’s history, doesn’t make any sense at all until you add in the possibility… the possibility of the Sith working in the shadows, out of sight and out of mind, planting seeds that lead to the catastrophes which went done into history? I don’t know. Too many, most likely. How much of our history got lost due to unknown reasons? Far too many. Enough for even the Republic’s historians to note _in textbooks_ that not a lot of Jedi History remains to cover even a novella of a textbook. Enough for most of our archives to be information on other cultures, races, species, languages, planets, star systems, and other people’s history but not our own; kriff, even the fictional section of our archives is bigger than our history section. How many of those reasons for being lost do we know of? We’re the kinds of people who write down every important event down, who make statues and artworks from them. Yet more than half of our history is missing, stuff happened that not even Master Yoda remembers the details of. Who better at destroying that stuff and leaving no evidence behind than the Sith? Especially with us helping them by denying the possibility that maybe, just maybe they lived on, in smaller numbers, definitely, but they lived on.” That last part caused absolute silence. One of the Council members puts their heads in their hands, rubbing it in frustration and sorrow.

Yoda’s ears drop lower and his age seems to almost grow another 10 years, “Much, over the centuries, we have lost. Seemed to disappear before our eyes, information always did. Created the archives to stop this phenomenon, we did.”

Adi Gallia sighs and shakes her head, “What good that did. 10,000 years’ worth of Jedi history, gone into either myth or lost forever, including the historical beginnings that lead to the creation of the Jedi Order. 900 years’ worth of history is stored in our Coruscanti archives, plus the 1,000 years of history stored among the other sects’ own archives.” She focuses on Qui-Gon, eyes sharp, “But you’re suggesting we lost that information because of the Sith?”

“Not all of it because of the Sith, but a lot of it. Even the Republic has lost history. What if the reason it’s lost or they destroyed is because the information from those Lost Centuries also contained details explaining why it took us almost 10,000 years to defeat the Sith? What if that information contained details of how the Sith can keep us on our toes? Such as, remaining hidden from our sight for all these years?”

Before this could become an entire debate or argument, The Iktotchi Saesee Tiin pointedly interrupts, “How about we focus back onto your report and discuss these things _at a later time_?”

Qui-Gon shakes his head and focuses back on the report, “Right, where was I? Oh, I ordered everybody back onto the ship the moment after Obi-wan and I registered the dark presence…”

Shmi’s chip had been on her left, upper arm. Easily and carefully removed.

Anakin, Shmi, the Jedi Healers, and Obi-wan all stand now, looking grimly at the hologram scan of Anakin’s body. Ani’s chip was planted in Anakin’s back, near his spine. The healers say the chip by now was either intertwined with the muscles or getting close to that stage. Shmi, however, has insisted that the muscles and fibers and organs if touching the chip would have activated it and blown Ani up, that there was a barrier of some sort that got those things to move and grow around the chip’s barrier. The Healers had replied that if that was true then the situation got more complicated because then the muscles and other internal organs would be used to working around the chip, which in the case of it being in Anakin’s back, isn’t good. They were lucky Shmi’s chip had never been buried _under_ the muscles, but with it being in his back, most likely it was buried under his muscles for Ani. Complications on top of complications.

“It’d be a blessing from the Force if this doesn’t lead to death, it’d be a miracle if this doesn’t lead to paralysis for Skywalker,” a Twi’lek Jedi healer mutters.

Shmi worries her lip, staring at the image and muttering curses towards the Hutts. She wants her son to be free but she also wanted him to live to see and experience that freedom.

“Do the operation.” Everybody’s heads snap towards the child.

“Wh – what?” Master Jinn’s padawan stampers in bafflement and horror. The Jedi Healers also seem horrified. “Kid –”

“Freedom is Death, Death is Freedom,” his gaze goes to the Jedi, “I will either die free or I will live free, but neither will happen if that chip isn’t taken out of me. I will not allow a single person to control my life, not with this one opportunity to get rid of the one thing they can use against me, against running for my life. Do the operation.”

Shmi closes her eyes then opens them, focusing on the Jedi Healers, “Do the operation, take the chip out. Death is just as much freedom for us as living free is. Either way, Ani is leaving this place officially free, not just paper free.” The Healers did not want to take that risk but the two ex-slaves, even the mother, was. Even though they didn’t understand, they knew that freedom for slaves was freedom, no matter what kind it was.

Anakin went under and the operation was done. 

Somehow, someway, it was successful. The chip was out. They just barely managed to avoid damaging the spine or any other important things in the back. The muscles had indeed worked around the chip, so Anakin will have to go through some therapy to get his muscles used to the new position the Healers had fixed and healed them in using the Force, even with Bacta helping the process along.

Meanwhile, Queen Amidala calls out a veto of no confidence to several senators, all of whom are known affiliates of the Trade Federation or involved in the Trade Federation. Causing uproar, because it was the first time a senator has called a vote of no confidence to a fellow senator and not just a chancellor. But apparently, once they’ve verified with the lawbook and their lawyers, it was completely legal and the actual reason that law was made, so any Republican person dissatisfied with a specific senator or group of senators can call for their impeachment and forbid them from ever being apart of the Senate again. It was a failsafe put into place by the Jedi themselves so the Senate would stop using them as barriers against the people and so the people didn’t think them tools of the Senate.

The Trade Federation and its affiliates are forcibly removed from the Senate chambers, so neutrals and other parties can vote for or against this vote of no confidence without bias or trickery from them; the Naboo party is also removed from the chamber to stop bias voting from them as they were the group that petitioned it forward. When questioned by Palpatine why she hadn’t vetoed the chancellor like everybody else, the Queen responses, “You know as well as I, that would not have done anything. Neither the new chancellor nor the current one would have done bantha poo to change the circumstances, the outcome, or anything else. They would not have stopped the Trade Federation, not without the entire Senate behind them and enough evidence to prove it was happening. The idea that my workers’ testimonies and my own isn’t enough evidence is absolute bantha shit and an excuse to not do anything.”

She turns to her captain and says, “Captain! After this, we will rest and resupply a few more days and then head out back to Naboo.” The Captain salutes her and contacts her crew and his to inform them.

Hours later, in the safety of her apartment, she turns to the captain and informs him, “Contact the Jedi, Shmi and Anakin, and my resuppliers. We leave tomorrow.” When asked why she had said a few days later beforehand, she answers, “Right at this moment, I don’t trust anybody among the Senate, not even Palpatine. Not even my other trusted senator friends such as the Alderaanian Senator Bail Organa. I cannot let anybody among them know of my true actions.” The captain nods and gets to work sending the correct information, this time through a secure and secret Comm line that only the Jedi know of. Once informing them of the correct info is done, he switches to the Naboo Royal Security secure Comms and informs the workers of the correct info.

The next day, the Nabooians went home to fight against the Trade Federation.

The Gungans join. The Jedi fight the Sith, Darth Maul; the Nabooians head to the Palace. Anakin, who’s supposed to be recovering and waiting on the Naboo ship, accidently gets involved in the air battle and destroys the blockage center ship. Obi-wan defeats the Sith and hears his master’s last words. Padmé takes back her home.

Shmi scolds Anakin.

There’s a celebration.

Anakin gets another impression of another celebration, with a castle and dancing and reservedly cheering, haunted people and feels deep sorrow like he had lost someone precious to him. Then shakes his head, getting rid of the image.

Preparations for recovery and rebuilding gets made and begun, with the camps being the first things getting destroyed and the people set free.

Shmi gets offered a job as a mechanic or an artist if she finds she prefers that route instead. Education, of course, will be freely provided for her.

Obi-wan offers training to Anakin, Anakin accepts the offer with glee – threating the Council to leave and train him anyways if they don’t allow it. They agree, but in return, both Obi-wan and Anakin must get therapy, only then will they allow the master-padawan bond.

Anakin and Shmi both learn the original, untainted meaning of Master which is Teacher. Obi-wan telling Anakin to just call him Teacher Obi-wan or Teacher until he can say Master without the taint of slavery and slavers behind it.

Anakin asks Obi-wan if they will free the slaves as Jedi. Obi-wan replies maybe. If the Jedi can disconnect and stop the Senate from thinking they were their tools. To become true Peacekeepers of the Galaxy and not just the Republic.

“But we first have to clean up our own house before we can anybody else’s,” he finishes. “In order to do that, we need to get more people to realize there even is a problem.”

Anakin, understanding his meaning – having heard Shmi and the Grandmothers give this explanation many times before to the children –, accepts his explanation. He can wait, but he will hold Obi-wan _and_ the Council to that ‘maybe’.


	3. Flashbacks Are A Pain

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Ani is 13-years-old. Obi-wan is still called Teacher. Will update you on political atmosphere later, don't know which chapter but this chapter, it's not included.   
> Obi-wan and Anakin also came up with another usage of the Padawan-Teacher Bond called Bond Grounding. I hope the explanation in the chapter makes sense, it's hard to explain.

Anakin opens his eyes to see the Halls of Healing’s ceiling. Yes, he knows what the tall-ass ceilings of the Healing Hall looks like by this point, unfortunately. He doesn’t even have to remember what the exact events to know why he’s here.

At this point in time, the answer could only be that the Impressions had dunk-slammed him with a memory while he was in the middle of meditation. That’s the only time when the flashbacks get overwhelming or take him by surprise so much so that he ends up in the Halls. Really, he might as well have his own bed for his ‘special circumstances that usually land him in the Halls’.

Flashbacks, unprompted or otherwise, are a pain. Especially when he doesn’t even remember them after, all it does is bring in more impressions, which don’t even make sense, and a headache he can’t get rid of for a week.

Well. Nothing he can really do about it.

Anakin sighs, a bone-deep tiredness sinking into his bones. Anakin glances over, finally registering the hand wrapped in his, to see Teacher fast asleep in a seat next to his bed. Head on the bed, hand in his.

He smiles again, a spark of happiness settling in his chest while the tiredness gets him to close his eyes.

He sleeps peacefully now. No nightmares disturb his sleep.

He is being asked questions now. Anakin didn’t know how to answer them, given that he doesn’t even remember how deep into meditation he went to trigger an Impression Memory.

But Healer Master Che disagrees. She says the Feeling, or rather, the Force as Anakin now knows it is actually called, surrounding Anakin during the meditation, before Anakin did a deep dive and when he did a deep dive, reacted in a similar way to how it reacts when Anakin, specifically, but other powerful Force Sensitives too, is having a vision. Even when he was brought in, there was left over residue from the Force.   
“Both the scans and the Force prove that this incident is completely different from your… Impression Memory Attacks as you call them,” Healer Master Che points out. Anakin frowns in confusion.

“It felt the same as an Impression Memory though… It didn’t feel at all like those visions the Teachers talk about. I don’t even remember anything that happened –”

A flash of fire. Panting, running, desperately trying to get away while dragging somebody along with him as she weeps in agony.

Blue beams. Pain. Strange whirring noises similar yet different to an astromech droid. Tired, weak, want to rest, can’t – have to protect – who?

Chains. Water, endless, endless water. Dead companions, lost companions. A town in ruins.

_I failed. I failed. I failed._

Light. Hope. Freeing the companions. Nature reclaiming the lost land. Other Heroes standing behind him in every step.

_You fought. You won. There is Hope in this world, even broken._

Anakin blinks the Impressions away. Sound and vision returning to his eyes to see Healer Master Che and the other Healers over him, trying to get him back.

“Sorry,” Anakin breathes as they back off after making sure he was alright. “The impressions that the Memory brought me just crashed into my head unprompted.”

One of the Healers, frowning, asks, “Are you absolutely certain it was an impression and not a vision?”

There is silence for a moment then Anakin looks at the Jedi in the room with him. He answers with a haunted melancholic finality, “The things I see don’t exist anymore. Or at least, don’t exist here.” He didn’t need to say _in this galaxy_ for them to hear that implication.

The Healers back off at that. But Healer Che says, “Even so, a vision could still reach you, especially through these impressions of yours, when you go into as deep of a dive as you had. I hate saying this, but the Force works in mysterious ways, especially in your case with your Impressions. Please be more careful if you’re going to go into such a deep dive in meditation again.” Anakin agrees.

The Healers left after that to check on their other patients.

Teacher Obi-wan rushes to his side the moment they’re gone, asking questions and internally panicking, thinking he had pushed Anakin too far in the meditation when he wasn’t ready. The 13-year-old Padawan waves him off though.

“You’re fine, Teacher Obi-wan. It wasn’t your fault. That Impression Memory would have popped up eventually anyways. Better it happened in a controlled environment like meditation and the Room of a Thousand Fountains then while we were in the middle of a mission,” he tells him. But Teacher remains stress, frowning, “It shouldn’t have happened though. You said so yourself, that meditation kept the memories and impressions at bay because instead you’re being overwhelmed or focusing on someone or something else like the Force.” Anakin shrugs.   
“Sometimes, it doesn’t care what I’m doing, it will hit me in the karking face if it could. Which it does and has multiple times.”

You would think Anakin would keep the Impressions/Memories thing a secret. Ending up in the Halls of Healing, getting Impressions that cause him pause, the whole meditation thing – oh, and also everybody around him being Force Sensitive and thus able to tell that something was up, kind of forced him to just tell them about the Impressions from the get-go. If it wasn’t for those things and the problems they result in, Anakin would not have told anybody, just kept it a secret like he had when he was a slave.

Teacher sends him a soothing and steady stream of calm and assurance, whispers of reality (such as where they are, when they are, and who Anakin is), through the bond to ground him back into the present and reality. Sometimes, the Impression cause him to forget where, when, and who he is among other things about himself and his surroundings – sometimes they cause him to drift into his head enough to where everything fades away and he can’t get back. It doesn’t happen so often that Obi-wan has started to do this even when Anakin doesn’t Memory Impress or gets déjà vu over something, but it happens often enough for them to name the process (they named it Bond Grounding) and get into the habit of doing it before, during, and after missions/meditations/any medical emergencies/any troubling thing or event that causes disconnect*. Bond Grounding helps both Anakin and Obi-wan stay in the present and ground themselves in reality instead of their heads or the Force (which can happen during meditation and has happened to many Jedi). Anakin does it for Obi-wan when he gets Lost (that’s what they’ve taken to calling the event of getting too far into your head or something else), Obi-wan does it for Anakin (Anakin tends to switch between Standard Jedi Lost and Impression Lost so he needs it more often).   
*For clarification: On a daily basis, they do it once every month. In emergency situations, such as right now, depending on how Lost the person got and how many times they keep drifting during the recovery period, it can range from One Time to every single hour.

They started the Bond Grounding, but a Padawan and a Master once stumbled upon Anakin having to stop what he’s doing to focus in on their Bond and help Bond Ground Obi-wan from far away, and they asked him what it was he was doing. When he explained Bond Grounding to them, they seemed fascinated especially after he showed them how to do it. The word quickly spread about this new method of grounding yourself back into the present and not drifting into the Force. Many, many, _many_ teaching sessions, tweaking/experimenting/adjusting for the Unbonded Jedi (those who lost their teacher/student, those who aren’t yet Bonded to anybody, and those who are transceding from Student to Teacher or just Padawan to Knight with no plans to be a teacher), and tweaking to the Code* later, every Coruscanti Jedi is able to Bond Ground even those who are not Bonded (in the Padawan/Teacher sense) so long as they have a connection with them (such as both sides considering each other to be friends or at least trusting each other).   
*the Bond has to be filled with Love, platonic or romantic, for it to work. This is where Plo Koon takes the time to correct Anakin’s assumption about Attachment – “Attachment is Selfish Love, Ani, a Love that has corrupted into possession and obsession. That is not a love Jedi can risk or have.” But that still doesn’t change the fact that a lot of the Code brings unbalance to someone who was raised to Love, Cherish, and Protect What You Have with Your Life.

With Obi-wan’s stream of assurance, calm, and grounding reminders, the last of the panic and confusion and fear and pain Anakin had felt slowly washes away as Anakin lays back down with Teacher’s assurance that it is okay. His breathing slows and steadies as he closes his eyes. Then relaxes into a deep sleep once again.

Obi-wan doesn’t stop the Bond Grounding until he can sense that all of the Lost and Fading parts of Anakin, which had continued on through his rough feelings, even when he snapped back, is gone and Anakin’s mind has completely settled into the present. He slowly slips down the Bond road back into his own lane as Anakin’s road and home falls into sleep. He leaves one streetlamp on between their two sides and closes the door to his home (not shutting down his half of the Bond, but giving privacy. He had also closed Anakin’s door on his way out).

“The Council will come to check on you later,” he whispers to the sleeping Anakin then once again settles into his hospital seat next to Anakin’s bed, keeping vigil.

Obi-wan brushes the drop of guilt over Bond Grounding without asking first aside easily. That was why it was important for the two participants to be Bonded; Trust, Love, and Acceptance (which your Bond must have) means both sides understand Emergency Situations means No Time to Ask for Permission To Do A Bond Grounding. Anakin had already told him several times that his brand of Lost and Fading in Standard Jedi Lost plus his specialty Dish of Impression Lost and Fading means that Obi-wan needs to be ready to Bond Ground at the drop of a hat without conscious thought and without permission. Because Anakin is not going to be able to confirm or deny permission in those moments, so Obi-wan needs to be ready to do it and needs to be able to get through the tsunami crashing against Anakin’s inner walls trying to get out.

Upon being discharged, Anakin immediately sent a quick message to his mom through their coded communicators they made about two years ago. It was just a simple ‘I’m okay’ message with a one word statement added in after about an impression suddenly striking him in the face while meditating.

 _Pankol’rene._ Rewinded Tale. Their code for Impression Memory, written in Huttese but has no meaning in that language, spoken in Amatakka but also has no meaning in that language.

She responses back with an ‘Alright? _Nomatol’rena._ ’ Silenced Story in the code – hide if danger, silent if safe. A response to the statement – acknowledgement but also a checkup, asking for safety in the situation when the Impression Memory happened.

‘Okay. In Temple.’ He sent back.

Then put away his comm in one of his pouches and jogs to catch up with Teacher who is waiting for him a little farther ahead.

“To the Council we go,” Anakin sighs when he catches up. Obi-wan gives a short snort in response before the two head off from the Halls of Healing to the Council Chamber.   
(Anakin insisted on meeting them in the chamber, getting the conversation over with there, rather than with others around and listening in. He didn’t feel comfortable with others listening in.)

Anakin puffs out a breath as he thinks about the Impressions which had suddenly sneaked up on him in the Halls. “Flashbacks are a pain and shouldn’t exist,” he declares to Teacher Obi-wan who shakes his head and replies, “Sure, Ani, but now is not the time to have a debate on memory and the Impressions you get.”

“Later then?”

“Maybe. Let’s just focus on reporting to the Council first.”

“I could make it an entire paper about it.”

Obi-wan chuckles. Anakin keeps up his serious face before he joins in laughing.

Yeah, flashbacks are a pain but he can get through them the same as any other vision.


	4. Lost

Honestly speaking, Lin – Anakin should have expected this. Wanderings in the past have led him to getting lost and into trouble, but with him being a completely different person from the versions of him before, he had thought that part at least would have left him.

You would certainly think it would rear its ugly head sooner. Not at the age of fifteen and in the middle of a diplomatic mission.

Once he realized that he is lost, he had simply sent up a prayer to the Force that he won’t run into a dungeon and carried on, trusting that eventually, either the Force will lead him to the right trail or his Teacher will find him. Centuries of getting lost in his past lives has at least taught him that panicking will not solve anything and it’s better to just keep moving forward.

Although, Anakin realizes as he ducks and crawls under a huge tree root, he probably should be freaking out more over Link (learned his past lives’ name last year) ‘waking up’ and taking control much more easily than before nowadays. If it was anybody else, he might have. However, this is himself, a version of him with a completely different background, name, life(ves), culture, language, different everything, yes, but himself. In any case, the input has proven more than valuable – helping him to more easily avoid creepy old men and slimy rich folk who want nothing more than to have his body under their command (gross), and helping him especially with things that he otherwise would have been overwhelmed about and unsure how to proceed with.

Like right now. When he’s completely lost on a planet with a deadly atmosphere (yes, he’s wearing an oxygen mask, not get your pants in a twist), strange forests, and unknown creatures lurking within, and hardly any roads.

He was doing good so far, but night is coming soon and he knows that setting a campfire in an atmosphere with many toxins dangerous to most species outside of this planet is probably not a good idea.

He needs to find shelter, fast, one that will allow him to make a safe space with light that can keep him warm and not just brighten the area. This planet’s nighttime, if their guide was correct, was as cold and as deadly as Tatooine’s winter nights. Meaning death for those who don’t find or make shelter in time and don’t have the proper warming gear.

Just as that thought crosses his mind, Anakin’s footing slips as the ground suddenly collapses underneath him. He finds himself spinning, not even able to scream as ground becomes up and down and right and left. He hits a wall, spinning even more out of control as his head explodes with pain making him finally cry out. Only to get a mouth full of dirt and rock as he once again loses track of up and down and left and right.

His arms and legs frail out, trying to find purchase and something to hold on to. Finally, he manages to throw a hand out as he finds himself finally facing the ground, enough to call on the Force to stop his movement. Unfortunately, because of how he didn’t put any effort to his question/call to the Force on what he was asking it to do beyond just begging for help in stopping his momentum, They pull him into a complete stop inches above the ground, nearly causing him to vomit and pushing his body to move forward then back.

It also causes him to lose his breathe, which causes him to lose focus. He drops to the floor, bellyflop style.

And groans in pain after a few moments. Once he finds the strength to lift his head up, past the concussion headache.

“Ou-ch,” he breathes out after spitting out dirt and rocks. A breeze brushes around and circles him in apology as he slowly and carefully gets up, breathing in and out through the bruises and aching lungs and massive concussion headache. He leans on his knees with his hands, heaving and just trying to get his breathe back in order. Blood dripping down his face and neck from his concussion. Then he waves away the Force’s apology as he straightens up.

“Don – don’t apologize. That – that was my fault for not being clearer in my shrieking for me to stop falling. Then again, I don’t think I could have been clearer,” Anakin looks up at the hole where the sunlight from the setting sun shined through about forty feet above him, “No. Not with such an unexpected drop like that.”

He spits on the ground to get rid of excess dirt, puffing out a, “Great. Now I’m more lost. Obi-wan’s gonna kill me.” He fixes his oxygen mask to being back around his face and over his mouth and nose, coughing slightly. He hopes he hadn’t inhaled that much of the air to affect him too much. Then his surroundings finally register.

A circular enclosure from the hole. Giant and small roots from the trees within the dirt and even outside of the dirt. The entire enclosure slick with the recent downpour just hours before, too wet to climb out of even with the Force, especially not with his concussion and bruised body. A small stone door with two unlight torches placed next to each other. A locked metal chest right behind him.

The all-powerful stench of hopelessness, death, decay, mud, dirty water, and general dread that never goes away once you catch it even after you leave these kinds of places.

Link, every single version of him (even the Wild side who had not faced these kinds of dungeons), from within his Soul, lurches forward with a cry of dismay, rage, and horror, recognizing the signs immediately. Thus, Anakin recognizes it too.

“A dungeon,” he whispers, face paling, “… I spoke too soon…” He just barely manages to suppress the Impressions of every Link who had faced a similarly styled dungeon as this one. _Now, we are definitely lost_ , the Link who suffered through a post-post-apocalyptic Hyrule which had many types of dungeons like this in its desolate lands, whispers before retreating once again. He always managed to find these types of dungeons in his Hyrule every time he let himself get lost. So, pretty much every day even after his two adventures.

Anakin shakes himself to get rid of the Impressions and Echoed Memory-Thoughts from the Links. Now was not the time. He couldn’t get out, not with the rain-slick dirt, not even the Link whose Hyrule was only the wilds and forgotten ruins could climb rain-slick mountains. So, he had to face the dungeon head on.

He checks his oxygen mask levels connected to his comm, which is right now only able to display the time and the levels on his mask. Just enough for him to get through the two more nights as long as he doesn’t do anything else to knock the mask out of place.

Good thing he had closed his road section of the Bond before he realized he was lost. Obi-wan would be panicking even more and possibly end up in another dungeon or this one, if he heard the curses and pain going on through Anakin’s mind and body as he lockpicks the chest and opens it.

The chest holds a bow and two quivers of arrows. He checks the arrows. 11 standard arrows, 11 shock arrows, and 11 ice arrows in the first quiver. 11 bomb arrows, 11 sticky-net arrows, and 11 fire arrows in the second quiver. Each quiver had a belt holding it. He silently thanks the Force and Ar-Amu as he throws the first quiver over his shoulder and attaches the second quiver to the right side of his belt.

It’s a good thing that he had trained himself in archery the moment he was able to once he received the memories of his past lives using archery to help them with their adventures. (The younglings love watching him train in archery and practically begged him and bugged the Teachers endlessly to letting them be taught. They allowed it after two weeks of the bugging and ordered the shipments of arrows, quivers, and bows, explaining to the public for why with a simple, ‘Children’s curiosity and their endless bugging.’ Nobody needed further explanation.) He was glad for the foresight in (re-)training himself in archery.

Once he has the quivers secured, he eyes the torches and the door. Checks the torches for wetness. No wetness. Backs up.

Anakin pulls out a fire arrow from the second quiver, positions his feet, draws it back, allowing instinct and the most-skilled-in-archery Link to come to the forefront. He lines it up, then releases the fire arrow.

It strikes the torch, lighting it on fire, as he draws back another fire arrow and shoots the second torch a second later, lighting it on fire.

The stone door opens vertically with a creaking, shaking groan. Anakin looks at his bow, trying to figure out where he can store it when he spots a nail tied to the bow with a rope string. He feels around his belt for something on it that has a hole which the nail can sink into. Finds it and sinks the nail into the cylinder, letting the bow hang on his side and a bit behind him.

He looks around the surroundings once again. Then sees the torch leaning against the door underneath the hanging torch. Grabs it and lights it with one of the lit torches, muttering, “Just in case.” He makes sure his flashlight is within reach on his person though, also just in case.

Then he ducks down and carefully enters through the small door, letting his torch go through first.

He comes up to find himself in a hallway only lit by his torch. Scans the area with it for any hanging torches, finds two on either side, unlit, every several feet. He lights the first one on the right side once, then that light spreads to the rest of the torches in the hallway on the right side. Anakin pauses in confusion, then one of the Links points out that this happens with many dungeons and to just get a move on because that’s magic and just don’t think about it. They needed to keep moving forward.

No dungeon has had a timer just yet beyond the entire adventure being on a timer – not including Wild Link’s shrines – but it’s still better to get through quickly.

Anakin shakes his head, “Right. The faster I get through this, the faster I can go back to being just lost in the woods and find Teacher Obi-wan or one of the other Teachers, or even a local.” He moves to the left side and lights the first torch on that side. The entire left side lights up.

Anakin shakes off the light on his original torch and puts it in his backpack. He pulls out his lightsaber, unlit, and walks forward through the hallway, keeping an eye out for any monsters.

His head pounded with the mild concussion, headache made worse by the clamoring of Links trying to desperately either go back into his Soul or get a desperate word in advice on how to handle the dungeon that they wished they known during their own adventure. He leans a hand against the wall, trying to get his vision back from its black spots and get his breathing back. _Shut up,_ he grits out in his mind. Well. The Force is out in any help in dealing with this dungeon, not with how he can barely concentrate in walking forward.

There’s a small brush of a familiar presence on his mind, radiating concern, barely contained panic, and worry. He closes his eyes and flinches back, breathing in a sharp breath.

That causes the smell and a strange dry-wet material on his hand to finally register in his mind. Beyond the usual dungeon smell, was an unfortunately familiar smell of blood. He looks slowly at the wall, mind clearing with the help of the Force enough for the black spots to disappear. Enough for him to see the mix of purple, black, brownish-red blood commonly seen in the native sentient species of this planet – all of the blood he knows instinctively to be old and new. People were stuck here recently, but there were also people who got stuck here before them. He yanked his hand back, seeing a bit of that mixture of blood ending up on his hand. He looks around him, carefully, still mindful of his concussion even through the building panic, to see that every single wall, ceiling, and floor was covered in blood. Not as heavy near the entrance but getting worse and much more covered in the stuff the deeper you go down the hallway.

Just before he reached a complete panic attack, calm was sent his way. Anakin recognizes it in the back of his mind as Obi-wan, but in the face of the panic and horror and Impressions flashing and replacing his vision with every dungeon the Links had faced before, the calm sent didn’t do much. Anakin closes his eyes tightly, sobbing and desperately trying to breath, headache blowing at his brains on top of all this. The Force whirls around him in a stormy wind, desperately trying to help but not receiving any information to help him calm down.

The other Links are scrambling, trying desperately to reign in the Impressions. The calm Obi-wan had sent, though not completely helpful, was an anchor that he recognizes, so he grabs it anyways. This is enough for the Link that the others call Old Man yet still refer to as Leader to be able to step forward.

He offers to help and Anakin gladly hands the reigns to him. But this Link refuses, saying that this is Anakin’s adventure and his dungeon. He had to face it as himself. The Old Man is simply here to help him get it together to get through the dungeon. Anakin moves aside, enabling him access to the mind, instead of just the Soul.

When Anakin opens his eyes, calm and collected a few moments later, the Force still and quiet once more, Time is in the forefront. They take off their backpack and pull out the first aid kit.

Use the alcohol to wipe away the blood on their face and where the concussion wound is. Checked to make sure it didn’t need stitches with a small mirror. It didn’t. So, they spread bacta on it and wrapped it up with bandages. Then put the first aid kit back and returns their backpack to its original place.

They turn to the rest of the hallway, eyes forward, ignoring the blood and march forward. Lightsaber out and ready to activate, Force spread out around them, scanning for monsters and other enemies, and traps.

They reach the end of the hallway, after only having to fight off two bat-like monsters (not Keeses though), and swing over a hole in the floor. (The original rope tied there had been fraying so they had used their own hooked rope (rope with a hook on one end) to attach to the metal pipe sticking out of the ceiling and swing over the hole.) The end of the hallway, this time, had a puzzle that needed to be solved to open the door.

Here was when Time stepped down and Anakin took control, baby blue eyes returning to Anakin’s storm-grey-blue eyes, calm once again.

The end of the hallway was a medium-sized room. A locked door to the left, a locked door in front, an open hallway to the right. There is one chest in the room resting on the wall next to him. He kicks it open.

The chest held a small key, neither of which fit the size of the left door’s keyhole or the front door’s keyhole, and a map. He put the key into his pocket and opens the map, which is bind together with twine and wrapped in a protective leather cover. It isn’t a map for the dungeon – much to his (their?) confusion – but a map to some kind of mechanism.

Wild perks up from their corner of his Soul and stands up. They appear before them in spirit form, one of the only Links able to do this because their bond to the wilds.

 _It looks like blueprints for this galaxy’s version of a Divine Beast_ , their voice whispers in his head as they look at the map over his shoulder. _I got access to the Divine Beasts’ map when I was working to save my fellow Champions, I remember a similar looking set up to their maps._

Anakin frowns, tucking once, twice at his Padawan braid, “Think the natives here are planning something?”

 _No. They genuinely wanted the Jedi’s help with their problem,_ Warriors, having experience in dealing with politicians and their words more out of all the Links, including Legend who was a Prince (against his will), speaks up from his post in their Soul. _The People’s thoughts regarding the Senate is another matter entirely. The guide, who is a member of the People’s side through and through, was brutally honest, remember? Xe would have warned us about the dungeons on the planet and where they were, if xe knew about them._

 _What about this planet’s politicians? The other side?_ Hyrule asks, poking his head up from his cave.

_They too wanted this problem solved. Otherwise, they would have stopped the People from sending that message directly to the Jedi. They don’t know about this dungeon or whatever this mechanical thing is either._

_Then… that means_ – Wild starts.

Anakin looks up from the map and around the room, as he whispers in dread, “My adventure as the Hero of Courage has begun.”

The Links fall silent, Wild even returns to their corner of the Soul. Only giving a simple, apologetic, _Sorry, Anakin_ , as they fade.

Anakin swallows thickly, takes in a deep breath, and puts the map into his backpack. He’ll have to give a full analysis and breakdown of the map and the contents once he’s out of this place.

For now, he pushes forward. Given that the key he was given didn’t work for any of the locked doors, he turns right into the open hallway. He walks down that unlit hallway, utilizing his flashlight in his free hand to see.

Two mechanical droid pops out of the side from the either wall, pointing guns at him to which he responds by turning on his lightsaber and parrying each shoot back at them. It takes shot #5 from each to take them out. They explode and some mechanical parts fall down to the floor; he collects them and puts them in his backpack out of a strange impulse. All of the Links look away at this action with a strange guilty expression, none more so than the First Link, but Anakin ignores his ‘ancestors’ strange reaction and carries on.

At the end of the hallway was a door. That was it. The door isn’t locked, so Anakin opens only to slam it shut to block the laser blast that had shot at him the moment the door was opened.

Anakin backs up a couple of steps, pulls out his bow, takes out a bomb arrow, and shots the door which explodes, the resulting fire spreads to the equipment behind the destroyed door. Thus, destroying the trap that had been connected to the door, including the gun that shoots lasers. He returns his bow and takes out his lightsaber, turning it on just in case.   
He steps through the door way, looking left and right with his light saber pointed in front of him.

Other than the stone walk-path, there was nothing but water filling both sides up to the brim. That water surrounded the entire large room, other than the circular stone platform at the top.

On which a large rock stood in the center. Past that stone platform was another path with a locked gate at the end. Legend, Wild, and First both looked up, recognizing what exactly a stone in the center of an otherwise peaceful field or pathway usually meant.

 _Anakin_ – 

“I know,” Anakin said grimly as he turned off his lightsaber and took his bow out once again, “Stone talus.”

He walks forward. The moment he reaches the platform, the stone talus awakens.

The moment the deposit ore is visible as it reassembles, Anakin shoots at it with two normal arrows in quick succession, leaps up as the stone talus drops down. Activates his lightsaber, lands on the talus and slashes at it.

It takes four hits from the lightsaber for the stone talus’s deposit ore to break just as the stone talus was standing up. Anakin leaps off and flips back onto the platform as the stone talus shakes then explodes, leaving behind multiple different gems. Anakin collects them, then walks past the platform onto the second pathway, easily ignoring the argument that had broken out between the Links in his Soul about how the fuck a stone talus is here in this galaxy when all the other Hyrulian creatures weren’t.

He examines the locked gate, then pulls out the first key he got from this dungeon. Puts it into the slot – it fits – and turns.

The gate opens.

He enters to find two chests. And a plaque on the wall above the two chests, written in – to Anakin’s surprise – Amatakka. Or at least, a strange deviation of Amatakka, the characters are similar enough to Anakin’s limited-knowledge Tatoo Amatakka’s characters (a slave being able to write is dangerous enough, most don’t bother with actually utilizing the Amatakka written language) that Anakin could still read it, though a few words he had to guess on.

The plaque reads,

_A challenge formed(?)_

_To any slave who finds this place._

_Here lies a being (???), whom’s fate is bond to ours,_

_From this prison (?), our cries shall echo (??)_

_In Just Revenge (???)_

_the mischief shalt (?) rise again._

_(?????) ushers in our New Day._

_Leave this place and (????) chain,_

_Or find the puzzles’ end (and)_

_Set us free once again._

It doesn’t tell him how to get out. Just that this was made for slaves to face the challenge, free the Divine Beast (? He can’t remember the name the map had given it, he’ll have to check), and, most likely, start the Slave Revolution.

Revolution… Well, it’s a little late for that. But a Slave Revolution would be completely different from the by-now centuries long war going on today on this planet that the Jedi had been called to help them resolve peacefully. (“They should have called us in earlier, it would have been resolved sooner, wouldn’t it? So, why now?” Obi-wan had stated/asked in confusion on their way over there. “If we had been called earlier in their war,” Plo Koon had pointed out, “They would not have been so incredibly tired of it to the point of willingly talking to each other in a peaceful and calm manner, much less stand being in the same room as the other side” “What can’t they just resolve together without interference?” Anakin had asked. “They’ve been at war for so long, I don’t think they could resolve it without interference by now – not without simply starting another political war with even more divided sides,” Teacher Plo Koon had answered.)

Anakin frowns, staring at the plaque. It looks centuries old. If Anakin didn’t know that tales and legends can and have been passed down for centuries after the incident in Amatakka circles and groups, he would wonder if this planet’s slave even remembered this dungeon or the mechinacal beast laying in wait here. _“How many slaves had probably looked out to the forests in this direction in longing, wondering if they could be the Hero that can solve this dungeon and be the pilot for the mechanical beast who supposedly will free them?”_ Anakin wonders. Then he shakes his head and focuses back on task. Namely, getting the fuck out of this dungeon.

Anakin wonders if in order to get out of this dungeon he has to get the beast. If so, then fuck. Obi-wan is going to resurrect him then kill him a second time if his actions in trying to get out of this place starts another war/revolution when, last he checked, they are still in the middle of trying to help the current politicians stop this one.

He opens the first chest, which reveals a blue key. Then the second chest, which gives him two twined sets of 5 normal arrows and another bow, this one being collapsible. Anakin puts the key in his pocket, puts the bow into a side pocket of his backpack and adds the arrows to his first quiver over his back.

Then he returns to the original room with the two locked doors.

Checks the second door first with the new key. It unlocks and, groaning, slides open.

Anakin immediately uses the Force to stop an entire barrage of blaster fire and sends it back down the hallway. Destroying and disabling the trap.

“If this was made by slaves for slaves to help free them, I’m going to eat my force-damn left shoe,” Anakin mutters as he rolls his shoulders and walks through the second door.

 _I mean… I had difficult shrines that were made by people who were on my side to challenge me and help me grow as a Hero, even with many of them being annoying as fuck or incredibly difficult ones that I kept dying in._ Wild whispers. _They probably intended a similar idea but not at this difficulty level – more at a beginning adventurer’s level, and everything that is difficult now was just added to some how by something._

 _This planet is and has been plagued by war for centuries,_ Warriors speaks hauntingly, _it makes sense that the things which came centuries before the war would be affected by it, in the body, mind, and spirit. The same thing happened in my Hyrule when the War Across the Ages happened._

Anakin puffs out a breath, immediately noticing the temperature change as a cloud rolls out of his mouth in the puff of air. The cold sinks past his skin and into his bones as he shivers. He pulls his cloak closer to him and steps over the threshold, straight into snow and ice.

The entire area is covered in snow and ice, even the rocky walls. There is a giant hole in the center, reaching up to 30 feet. There is no moonlight or sunlight coming down from that hole. In the center was a large maze, that started the moment he entered. Mixed into the snow and ice from the entrance was the broken traces of machinery that he had broken.

The ice was partially broken where he is from the fire. But there was nothing underneath, just black nothing, quickly being covered up by more snow and ice freezing further over those broken areas.

Anakin’s shoes are starting to get covered by that frost so he gets moving, pushing through the snow and ice to not get frozen by it.

 _“Mazes… I fucking hate mazes_ ,” Anakin/Link grumbles. He concentrates on the Force, blocking out everything else, including the small headache from his concussion and the careful occasional knocking sounding off in his ears, to help him get through the maze as quickly as possible.

He follows the Force’s guidance through the maze, avoiding touching the walls which are ripe with electric currents or ice currents that would freeze you solid if you touch them.

He reaches the center after jumping over several holes which lead to the bottomless pit seen before, that for some reason the snow and ice isn’t filling up. The center is a circular room with two square openings on the “left” and “right” wall. A plaque in the first wall in front of him.

The plaque simply reads in Amatakka,

_Choose a path._

_With your choice,_

_To storm or dust,_

_This world will free us._

Anakin looks at both options, listens to the Force.

He uses the Force to pull left to him and right away from him. The left opens to reveal a chest. The right wall collapses, right onto several monsters waiting behind it. Anakin opens the chest, revealing a jeweled item. It’s not a key but it looks like something that could be a key to someplace.

Anakin is hoping it’s the key to the place that will get him out of here.

He turns and goes right, down the hallway that had just collapsed on a bunch of monsters.

It leads him back directly to the first room, with the last locked door.

He still doesn’t have the correct key. But, out of a hunch and a nudging from the Force, he takes the bejeweled item and hovers it near the door, barely touching. The door opens.

Anakin winds up in a vast cavern with many different tunneling paths, stalagmites, nooks and caverns off shooting from the original vast cavern. Deep within it this vast area, is an orange barrier with characters and signs written in interlocking lines spiraling around the barrier.

A strange design of a set of wings protruding out of a shield with one wing broken off and the other draped over, partially covering the shield, is in the center of the barrier connecting the interlocking and spiraling lines together.

Anakin frowns as he carefully walks along the gently yet steep slope downwards to the barrier. “It… looks like some kind of a seal,” he mutters. Then he realizes where he had seen the design/symbol before.

Once he reaches the bottom where the barrier begins, he looks down at the item in his hand. The same symbol is etched into the circular metal of the item.

He tries to peak through the barrier to see what is inside if anything. All he could make out is that the thing inside is large and mechanical in nature, yet has some kind of a spiritual essence to it that he couldn’t name. 

He remembers the map then says quietly, “This must be the device then.”

Anakin… felt a bit nervous, maybe a bit afraid too. The dungeon… It didn’t feel complicated nor like an actual dungeon, but he knows with absolute certainty that it’s not one of Wild’s Shrines because they had a completely difference design aesthetics, technology, feel, and the puzzles were mini puzzles or small/large/medium combat trails. Wild didn’t have Bosses except for the Divine Beasts, but none of his so-called dungeons had the dungeon-esque-ness to it that the other Links have because the Shrines weren’t meant to be dungeons but small trials to help the Hero along their journey. If this is supposed to be a dungeon like the other Links had confirmed, because he had fallen into it similar to how many of them had fallen into their dungeons, where’s the final Boss? It couldn’t have been the stone talus, because that was too soon and stone taluses never hid in dungeons, only in the wilderness, even in First’s and Legend’s Hyrules.

But this isn’t Hyrule. “And I’m not Link,” he says aloud, shaking the trepidation.

Still, he hopes that the mechanical beast behind this barrier isn’t the Boss. That could mean a lot of things in terms of why this dungeon was built.

He places the item onto the barrier, reaching as close to where the symbol is as his height would let him on his tippy-toes.

The barrier breaks. Revealing the mechanical beast as a 6-stories-tall fox with 10 mechanical tails, painted green and black and blue. The fox remained turned off, laying on the floor, eyes closed. Tails curled around its body in a protective barrier.

Anakin is confused until he notices the hole on the fox’s forehead. It is in the shape of the item in his hand.

So, he Force-jumps onto head and carefully climbs his way to the fox’s forehead where he places the item into the hole.

It’s an immediate effect. The jewel shines green and the fox whirls to life. Dust, sand, and rocks falling off of its tails and body as it moves. Anakin has to use the Force to jump off and flip back to the ground as the fox’s eyes open, revealing glowing green irises. The beast sits up, tails swishing and swinging into their standard sitting down position, joints and other parts lighting up green and blue in the open and moving sections while the armored metal parts remain painted black with their green and blue symbols. None of which Anakin recognizes except for the Unfettered symbol painted onto the fox’s chest plate in green.

 _Green. Recognized as a symbol of Courage in Hyrule_. Has a completely different meaning in Amatakka. Anakin is going to assume that the green is supposed to be interpretated in Hyrule’s interpretation.

A deep, soft voice he doesn’t recognize speaks up in his head. _“Are you the one who awakened me, young one?”_

Anakin blinks in surprise and looks at the Divine Beast. All he can do is nod as its jaw opens once again to speak, bowing as it says, _“I thank you. Few survived or successfully solved this puzzle which lies here. Few think to go both routes, but few also have the power of nature on their side as well.”_

The beast closes its eyes for a moment, _“In the hours since you have entered this place, I have analyzed your memories. My planet, my people have been in war for many centuries. I have felt many tremors echoing in the earth over the years. I always assumed them to be earthquakes and simply the planet shifting slightly. I should have assumed the worst – a war. Of all silly and foolish things to invent, war is the number one choice a species could make.”_

It looks at Anakin, pining him with its eyes, leaning down. _“You, child. You are a child of war, a product of war, both a blessing and a curse. Trapped in an endless cycle, only to now find yourself in another place far from where your curse lies, remembering yet not, all of your past lives yet none of them. Pushed from one endless war only to find yourself in a place already at the brink of it.”_

Anakin swallows then, ignoring for now the implications of what the beast had said, replies, “The plaques… They said that you were designed to be the Slave Revolution, to help the slaves fight and free themselves.”

_“This is true. I was created by one slave mechanic, desperate and filled with righteous injustice over what was being done to her people. Nobody was doing anything about it so she, bloodied and with nothing to herself, decides that she would do something about it. She freed herself with her own blood and a trap laid to kill her now-former master. With her blood, sweat, tears, and whatever equipment and scraps she could get her hands on, she formed the first version of me, a mere kit to what I am now. But with her actions, her blood spilling into the ancient forest that she had hidden herself in, the Old Goddesses were moved. From her mechanical kit which could not yet do anything it wasn’t programmed for, they formed me and marked her as my pilot. My pilot died in the resulting battle for the slaves’ lives and freedom. As you, a former product of the vile slave owners, already know, we failed. I failed in my one duty assigned. I asked them to destroy me and bury me with my pilot. They told me, as they ran from the slavers and dragged me in tow, that no. They weren’t giving up. They knew, even with I, it wouldn’t be a solid win. They told me that we would continue to fight, that it wasn’t over. With the last of their strength, they built this place and its forest as a base, then a hiding spot for slaves to go to run from slavers, spreading the rumor that all who entered died. Then this place where I was lied to rest until someone came who solved the puzzles, was turned into the trial you see here. They turned me off, put the barrier up, and then left. And the trial was activated immediately. Centuries passed, the trial changed and changed in response to the monsters and, I guess too, the war, the people who came here to test themselves and see if they could free their people with me, who would have won otherwise, died in this trial. I have confronted and questioned my purpose many times over, with every death, every failed Slave Revolution that I was able to glean happening from the minds of those who entered this place. What I know now, is this:_

_I was created by a desperate and just slave woman, who wanted to see change, saw it wasn’t happening, and decided to do something about it, all for her child and family whom she will never even get to see grow up. My story, and Leilahna’s story, with the centuries-long war, has faded into nothing but legend.”_

“… Do… you want to help? My mom and my friend, Padmé, and her friends, they’re all apart of the Freedom Trial – the last call, mom mentioned that, they needed somebody who can cause chaos among the slave owners. Enough to where the slaves can be quickly and safely transported in large group without suspicion and it’s just chaotic enough to where they don’t think anything of it even after comparing notes. Securities getting tighter too so –”

The fox seems to grin. _“Cause chaos and mischief? Gladly. That was mine and Leilahna’s exact purpose during the Revolt.”_

“What’s your name?”

_“Leilahna called me Luk’kah. But the other slaves jokingly called me their own little Ekkereth.”_

“Help me get back to Teacher Obi-wan and I’ll get you into contact with mom. This isn’t a deal or anything. I just can’t do anything if I’m lost and not home.”

Anakin made it back to his teacher. He didn’t know how to explain Ekkereth – _“Only my pilot can call me Luk’kah”_ – nor anything about what he experienced. So, he just said, “Got lost. Then fell. Into a dungeon.” And left it at that.

Obi-wan lectured him, again, about wandering off the path, _again_. Then refused to let him out of his sight for the rest of the night. The locals were too surprised by Ekkereth to ask any questions about where he got it and what exactly it is. To his relief.

The Freedom Fighters came during the night, he brought Obi-wan with him (yes, he explained everything that happened to him and the Teachers once they were in privacy), and helped them get Ekkereth onto their ship to take him back to their secret base.

Yes, he greeted his mother.

The diplomatic mission is a success, not including his little adventure.

Anakin is forced to spend a week in the Healing Halls though, “just in case”. 


End file.
